SPOILER ALERT! EPISODE TWENTY OF THE SECOND SEASON OF ONCE UPON A TIME, IT’S A SECRET TO EVERYBODY!

This episode was all about how Regina is an insane, crazy idiot. I mean, I hardly even have the words to describe how stupid Regina is in this episode.

Regina Shapshifted into a Peasant

Regina goes to Rumpelstiltskin and asks him to shapeshift her into someone else so that she can hide in plain sight in order to get the jump on Snow White and kill her. He tells her that no one will recognize her and that she won’t be able to use magic while she is another form. He even shows her that she looks completely different in a mirror to drive the point home.

The next time we see Regina, she tries to use magic and have people obey her as their queen. Gah! Memory like a goldfish this one has.

Regina also doesn’t seem to get why killing thousands of people would make her evil, because something, something, SNOW WHITE. And we learn for the, like, millionth time that Regina can never be reformed, because we just didn’t understand it when they tried to drive that point home in all the previous episodes.

I don’t even know anymore. Please stop, Once Upon a Time, you’re hurting me.

…yadda yadda yadda…

Regina meets up with Captian Hook and they go to retrieve some magical MacGuffin out of the caverns beneath the library, because that cavern set was expensive, goddamit, and they have to justify the expenditure by using it at least once a season.

Maleficent, girl, that is not a good look for you.

But, oh no! Maleficent is still alive, because magic, and Regina tosses Hook to her as a distraction. Also, Maleficent is now a lych or something of the like. I assume the actress that plays Maleficent, Kristine Bauer van Straten, is busy working on True Blood. Still, hope that Maleficent returns to human form this season, because I love Kristin Bauer van Straten. One day she will be my best friend.

A-HA!

When Regina returns to the surface with the MacGuffin, she learns that Captain Hook is in cahoots with Tamara and Greg Mendell. Tamara and Greg have powerful scientific powers and they gave Hook a special cuff filled with the “toughest metals and machinery known to man” to give to Regina. The cuff counteracts Regina’s magic powers and she is now helpless.

This episode is about -THERE’S GOOD INSIDE OF YOU, I CAN FEEL IT! THERE’S GOOD INSIDE OF EVERYONE! YOU HAVE TO LOOK FOR THE GOOD INSIDE OF EVERYONE!

Oh, that’s where those went!

Remember how in the last episode how Mother Superior had her wand back mysteriously? Well, obviously, she took it back from Mr. Gold’s store when he wasn’t looking, so shut up.

Didn’t he have a magical force field that would’ve prevented that kind of thing? No. Shut up.

Seriously, though, why are they letting Mr. Gold sit on this giant arsenal of dangerous, magical trinkets? If I were Emma, I would have confiscated it all by now. Isn’t she still the sheriff? Or, like, David was the sheriff now, or something? I don’t know…

WHY WASN’T THIS FOR REAL!?

They show us a wonderful sequence where Mr. Gold turns Henry into a porcelain figurine and smashes him into powder, but it turns out that it was just a wonderful, wonderful dream. Dang it! Why won’t the annoying kid die for real?

I also noticed that there is a canoe hanging in Mr. Gold’s shop. Mr. Gold killed Pocahontas and stole her canoe because it is made out of magical wood. This is my theory.

BECAUSE THIS SHOW NEEDED MORE CHARACTERS!

This episode introduces Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham. The show needed more characters, so they added more characters. There was no way around it.

Anyhoo, in the past Enchanted Forest, Robin Hood steals a wand from Rumpelstiltskin. Rumpelstiltskin needs to kill Robin Hood now, because he has to maintain his evil persona or else people won’t be scared of him anymore. Belle doesn’t think that Rumpelstiltskin will kill Robin Hood, because Rumpelstiltskin still has some goods inside. Rumpelstiltskin doesn’t kill Robin Hood. The End.

Also, Rumpelstiltskin gives Belle a library, you know, just cause.

This episode is supposed to expand on why Belle fell in love with Rumpelstiltskin, but it ends up just making the audience hating them both a little bit, because they are both just so annoying.

Belle: “THERE’S GOOD IN YOU! THERE’S GOOD IN YOU! THERE’S GOOD IN YOU! THERE’S GOOD IN YOU! THERE’S GOOD IN YOU! GRAAAAAAHHHH!”

Rumpelstiltskin: “LOOK HOW EVIL I AM! LOOK HOW EVIL I AM! LOOK HOW EVIL I AM! LOOK HOW EVIL I AM! LOOK HOW EVIL I AM! GRAAAAAAHHHH!”

How does Robin Hood even fit in on this show? I mean, Robin Hood may be a fictional person, but other characters from his story, like Richard the Lionheart or the Sheriff of Nottingham, are real-life historical figures. Also, The Crusades, which are an important part of the Robin Hood story, are not very child-friendly or fairytale-like at all.

Field of Beans; Field of Dreams

Mary Margaret and David take Emma to see the bean patch. The beans might be mature enough to make a portal to the Enchanted Forest soon. Emma has to choose if she wants to go with them. Choices are hard.

Why did they plant an entire field of beans? You only need one bean to make a portal! There must be thousands of beans in that field. That’s thousands of beans that could fall into the wrong hands.

Aaannnnddd, Regina ends up finding the bean patch and stealing some beans. Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb.

Alright, I’ll bite, which one of the rabbit’s holes is it?

Mr. Gold goes looking for Belle, and he finds her in The Rabbit Hole, the world’s tamest sleazy bar.

Seriously, The Rabbit Hole is well-lit and clean. The patrons are well-dressed and nice. There’s even a nice, homey fireplace. There’s nothing about the place that is actually sleazy, but the audience is supposed to believe that it’s a “vile place” anyway.

Trouble with a capital “T” and that rhymes with “P” and that stands for POOL!

But, wait, oh no! Belle isn’t Belle anymore! She’s playing pool, the most evil sport there is, and you can see her bra, the most evil article of clothing there is. She’s evil. EVIL!

Belle is Lacey now and Lacey like two things: getting frisky and getting drunk.

Seriously, Lacey is an alcoholic. Every time we see her, she is drinking. It’s to the audience that she is a bit of a bad person.

Hey, shouldn’t Lacey be traumatized from 28 years in the hospital’s basement? No. Shut up. She doesn’t even remember any of that.

Anyhoo, Mr. Gold needs to get Lacey to fall in love with him, so he can give her True Love’s Kiss™ and have Belle’s memories to her. The only problem is that Mr. Gold is reformed now, so that his son will like him again and Lacey doesn’t like Nice Guys™.

Hey, remember Sneezy? He doesn’t!

Hey, everyone, chill out! The writers totally remember that Sneezy lost his memory too and they included a shot of Mr. Clark to prove it. I think he’s better and more hygienic as Mr. Clark though. Maybe they shouldn’t give him his memories back.

This guy has evil hair.

Well, I hope that none of you became too attached to the Sheriff of Nottingham. It looks like he’s among the many characters that are introduced and then killed-off in the same episode.

Mr. Gold goes on a date with Lacey, but he acts too sweet and kind and lame, so she ditches him and goes to the alleyway to make-out with the Sheriff of Nottingham’s Storybrooke alterego, Keith. Mr. Gold catches them and it causes him to have a sadness. Lacey is just too different from Belle.

Later, Keith meets up with Mr. Gold to apologize. Mr. Gold is in a really foul mood though, so he starts to beat the crud out of Keith with his cane. Lacey catches him and tells him not to stop because she like it. Lacey is turned-on by violence. Lacey likes Bad Boys ™.

Keith is probably dead now.

If the fandom doesn’t start calling the Rumpelstiltskin/Lacey pairing “Racey”, I’m going to be very upset.

“The Package”

In this episode, Tamara and Greg refer mysteriously to “the package” without revealing what “the package” is. You know, because when people are all alone and they aren’t worried that someone is listening in, they’ll still speak in code because it is fun. Jeeze, can’t people just have some fun once in a while. Gah.

Well, at the end of the episode it’s revealed that “the package” is actually Captain Hook, because the writers needed to find a way to get him from New York to Maine and the answer was inside Greg Mendell’s trailer.

Captain Hook’s new nickname is now “The Package”. (Because “package” is a euphemism for penis and Captain Hook has a penis.)